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WIRY (AM)

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Coordinates: 44°40′12.2″N 73°26′39.5″W / 44.670056°N 73.444306°W / 44.670056; -73.444306
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WIRY
Broadcast areaBurlington-Plattsburgh
Frequency1340 kHz
BrandingHometown Radio
Programming
FormatDefunct (was full service)
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
  • Dave Andrews
  • (Hometown Communications, LLC)
History
First air date
January 30, 1950 (1950-01-30)
Last air date
March 14, 2025 (2025-03-14)
(75 years, 43 days)
Technical information
Facility ID73035
ClassC
Power
  • 1,000 watts day
  • 940 watts night
Transmitter coordinates
44°40′12.2″N 73°26′39.5″W / 44.670056°N 73.444306°W / 44.670056; -73.444306
Links
WebcastListen live
Websitewiry.com

WIRY was an AM radio station licensed to Plattsburgh, New York. The locally owned and operated radio station broadcast at 1340 kHz in C-QUAM AM stereo, and operated with a full-service radio format from 1950 until 2025.

History

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Martin L. Schulman filed an application to build a new station on 1340 kHz in Plattsburgh on April 11, 1949, with preliminary plans to eventually transfer the station to a corporation partially owned by employees.[1] After an amendment to specify Clinton County Broadcasting Corporation as the applicant that September,[2] the construction permit was issued on November 4, 1949,[3] and issued the WIRY call sign that December.[4] Additional principals in Clinton County Broadcasting included former WEAV commercial manager Joel H. Scheier, Walter H. Petterson, and John R. Commins;[3] Schulman was Scheier's son-in-law.[5] WIRY went on the air January 30, 1950,[6] as a Mutual Broadcasting System affiliate.[7] As early as 1955, Scheier told trade publication Broadcasting–Telecasting that WIRY's format consisted of "local programming of news and music that our local listeners like", accompanied by "a tremendous amount of public service".[8]

In the early 1950s, WIRY's owners made plans to expand into television through an affiliated company, Great Northern Television. It first applied for ultra high frequency channel 28 at Plattsburgh in 1952.[9] After withdrawing the channel 28 application on September 29, 1953,[10] Great Northern instead proposed to use the very high frequency channel 5 allocation at Lake Placid to build a station near Bloomingdale on October 9;[11][12] this construction permit was issued that December.[13] After relocating the channel 5 permit to North Pole,[14] the television station signed on in 1954 as WIRI.[15] Despite the association with WIRI television, Joel H. Scheier affirmed that WIRY's principals remained committed to radio, vowing that, "Radio will never die, nor ever fade away."[8] In 1956, WIRI was sold to Rollins Broadcasting[16] and renamed WPTZ.

Joel H. Scheier bought Armand A. Mancuso's 10-percent stake in Clinton County Broadcasting for $4,500 in 1955, increasing his interest in WIRY to 431⁄3 percent.[5] The following year, Scheier paid $16,000 to acquire Vincent S. Jerry, John M. Nazak, Martin Schulman, Donald L. Pelkey and Thomas A. Robinson's stakes in the station.[17] In 1958, Scheier sold WIRY to Charles B. Britt Jr., executive vice president of WLOS and WLOS-TV in Asheville, North Carolina, for $200,000.[18]

Britt's WIRY, Inc., put a second station on the air in 1961: WIRD (920 AM) in Lake Placid.[19] WIRD was sold to a group led by Lincoln F. Dixon and Donald A. Nardiello in 1965.[20] Control of WIRY was transferred to Britt-Pelkey, Inc., in 1973;[21] in 1976, Donald L. Pelkey bought Britt's stake, becoming 85-percent owner of WIRY.[22] By 1989, when the station bought a Birch ratings breakout book after previously refusing to subscribe to Arbitron and Birch ratings for the full Plattsburgh–Burlington market, WIRY was reaching 36.2 percent of Clinton County radio listeners.[23]

Donald Pelkey sold WIRY to William Santa's Hometown Radio Inc. for $175,000 in 1994.[24] Santa owned the auto dealership that was next door to WIRY's Cornelia Street studios.[25] In 2008, the station vacated the Cornelia Street facility, which had formerly been a veterinary office and was demolished to make room for a Walgreens, and moved to a new studio on US 9 south of Plattsburgh.[26][27] With the move, the station began transmitting into a Valcom whip antenna, instead of the guyed tower used on Cornelia Street.[28]

WIRY began leasing FM radio station WPLB (100.7) in 2016; the rechristened WIRY-FM would mostly simulcast the AM side, with syndicated music programs airing in place of sports (Bill Santa, WIRY's owner, stated that major sports teams prefer AM radio affiliates).[29]

In September 2019, a coalition led by the station's news director Dave Andrews along with Clinton County businessmen and politicians was revealed to be in negotiations to purchase WIRY from Bill Santa. The station's full-service format was not expected to change.[30] The purchase by Hometown Communications, LLC, at a price of $287,500, was consummated on December 27, 2019. The new owners did not continue the local marketing agreement with Radioactive, LLC, to simulcast on WIRY-FM, which went off the air in early 2020.[31] Andrews' group, who called themselves the "Four Amigos", vowed to restore local management to the station (Santa did not live in Plattsburgh by the time of the sale) and keep it viable; they also tightened WIRY's playlist, focusing exclusively on songs from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s rather than its previous mixture of oldies and newer music.[32]

On March 12, 2025, WIRY announced the cancellation of all of the station's spoken word programming and unveiled plans to introduce special pre-recorded segments celebrating the station's diamond anniversary.[33] After fierce listener backlash, WIRY acknowledged the next day that this programming stunt was actually a farewell montage, and that WIRY was shutting down. WIRY ownership blamed the change on the shift of music listening habits to online platforms, which diverted listeners away from local full-service radio; the station also cited an increase in music royalties and an inability to recruit advertising salespeople.[34]

Programming

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At the time of its closure, WIRY operated a full-service, music-centered and locally originated format featuring an eclectic variety of genera. The station described its format as a mix of adult contemporary, country music, and oldies. The station had a live local morning show and an extensive local news and sports bureau, carrying the Plattsburgh Cardinals hockey team in winter months and high school sports. The station also maintained several creative advertising programs, including a listing of lunch menus from advertisers and a radio help-wanted show titled "Who's Hiring". Weather forecasts were taken from public domain National Weather Service reports.

The station served as an affiliate for the New York Yankees, New York Giants, Westwood One, The Beatle Years with Bob Malik, When Radio Was and The Country Music Greats Radio Show.

In addition, the station also streamed on the Internet. WIRY streamed continuously after starting a website in October 1997,[35] and survived the Internet radio bust that forced many stations to stop streaming c. 2002.

References

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  1. ^ "April 14 Applications". Broadcasting–Telecasting. April 18, 1949. p. 76.
  2. ^ "September 29 Applications". Broadcasting–Telecasting. October 3, 1949. p. 80.
  3. ^ a b "Fulltime Granted 'Times-Picayune' Station". Broadcasting–Telecasting. November 7, 1949. p. 82.
  4. ^ "FCC Roundup". Broadcasting–Telecasting. December 12, 1949. p. 79.
  5. ^ a b "Ownership Changes". Broadcasting–Telecasting. May 16, 1955. p. 143.
  6. ^ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1999 (PDF). 1999. p. D-309. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  7. ^ "WIRY Debut: Set For Next Thursday". Broadcasting–Telecasting. January 23, 1950. p. 42.
  8. ^ a b Christopher, Lawrence (April 18, 1955). "Radio in 1955: Grass Roots Giant". Broadcasting–Telecasting. pp. 38–40, 44, 46, 48.
  9. ^ "Television Grants and Applications". Broadcasting–Telecasting. July 21, 1952. p. 78.
  10. ^ "Applications Dismissed". Broadcasting–Telecasting. October 5, 1953. p. 118.
  11. ^ "Owensboro, Lake Placid Applications". Broadcasting–Telecasting. October 12, 1953. p. 11.
  12. ^ "For The Record". Broadcasting–Telecasting. October 19, 1953. p. 122.
  13. ^ "Withdrawal of Competitive Bids Allows TV Grants in Five Cases". Broadcasting–Telecasting. December 7, 1953. p. 58.
  14. ^ "WPTZ history cards" (PDF). Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  15. ^ "WIRI (TV) Begins; Tvs Now Total 417". Broadcasting–Telecasting. December 13, 1954. p. 84.
  16. ^ "WIRI (TV) Sale Approval Asked". Broadcasting–Telecasting. February 27, 1956. p. 9.
  17. ^ "Ownership Changes". Broadcasting–Telecasting. October 15, 1956. p. 102.
  18. ^ "Changing Hands". Broadcasting. October 20, 1958. p. 97.
  19. ^ "WIRD history cards" (PDF). Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  20. ^ "Ownership changes". Broadcasting. March 8, 1965. p. 92.
  21. ^ "WIRY history cards" (PDF). Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  22. ^ "Ownership changes". Broadcasting. February 9, 1976. p. 59.
  23. ^ Peterson, Mike (August 12, 1989). "WIRY's local format tops in local ratings". Press-Republican. p. 3. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  24. ^ "New Age Broadcasting Doubles With WTPX-FM For $21.25 Million". Radio & Records. August 12, 1994. pp. 8, 10.
  25. ^ Fybush, Scott (August 29, 2002). "A Trip Back in Time to Plattsburgh". Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  26. ^ Fybush, Scott (August 11, 2008). "Non-Competes Outlawed in New York". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  27. ^ Fybush, Scott (December 1, 2008). "Bob Grant Out (Again) at WABC". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  28. ^ "Site of the Week 6/19/15: More of New York's North Country". June 19, 2015.
  29. ^ "WIRY launches FM signal".
  30. ^ "WIRY to be Sold".
  31. ^ Fybush, Scott (April 27, 2020). "NorthEast Radio Watch 4/27/2020: NYC Morning Voice Silenced". Fybush.com. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  32. ^ Delisle, McKenzie (January 15, 2020). "'Amigos' buy WIRY, keep AM radio signal alive in Plattsburgh". Adirondack Daily Enterprise. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  33. ^ "WIRY Ceases Operations". RadioInsight. March 14, 2025. Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  34. ^ "Plattsburgh's WIRY radio to shut down after 75 years of broadcasting". WPTZ. March 13, 2025. Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  35. ^ Fybush, Scott (October 30, 1997). "North East RadioWatch". Retrieved March 17, 2025.
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